When I tell people I’m a psychologist (only if they ask - honest!) I can pretty much guarantee I’ll see an instant change in their facial expression.
It’s either a spark of interest and a probable torrent of questions about what I get up to at work, or a look of fear and the inevitable phrase: “Are you analysing me now?”.
Reader, I am not.
Because, as I find myself saying on an incredibly regular basis, “I’m not that kind of psychologist”.
In the UK, as in many other countries, psychologists train in specialities. As an undergrad, I quickly discounted the option to pursue clinical training, which is another blog post entirely. But it wasn’t until I was in my final year that I began to get interested in the psychology of work and the workplace. It struck me as being a branch of psychology that has an incredibly relevance of so many people’s lives.
Occupational what?
Here in the UK, this goes by the unfortunate title of ‘occupational psychology’. Most of the world refers to it as ‘work psychology’ or ‘industrial/organisational psychology’. But as with many things, the UK is an outlier, and it’s just one more thing to explain to non-psychologists.
I’m also trained as a coaching psychologist, which is actually what I spend most of my time doing. So I mostly focus on individuals’ experience of work, coaching them to achieve what’s important to them and change their circumstances. Mostly around the topics of wellbeing, productivity and interpersonal effectiveness.
I don’t offer therapy, (it’s very different to coaching) nor do I have a couch for patients to lie on. In fact, I don’t have patients - I have clients. So when people ask me about what I do, I often describe myself as a workplace psychologist, who helps people be their best selves at work - using the science of psychology to get there.
I love explaining what psychology is and how it makes a difference at work. But this means explaining what I don’t do, as much as what I actually do. A small price to pay in my mission to bust myths about how our minds work at work.
